Yagyū arc
The Yagyū arc is the fourth of the story arcs in Vagabond, and it shows the events corresponding to Musashi Miyamoto's challenge against the Yagyū. Summary Musashi and Jōtarō's arrival to the Yagyū swords, the events while deliberating how to enter the Yagyū headquarters, Musashi's meeting with the 4 seniors, his solo fight against the Yagyū men, his encounter with Sekishūsai Yagyū and their talk, the fight's aftermath. Duration Chapters: 79—part of 106 Volumes: 9–part of 11 Arrival and deliberations Autumn. Otsū gives a letter to Yagyū head Sekishūsai that delights him: his grandson and heir, Hyōgonosuke, returns. At the same time, Musashi and Jōtarō arrive to the Yagyū estate. While they are deliberating how to enter the headquarters, they go to the local communal baths, where they find a young man who talks with Musashi and instantly recognizes him as an equal in ability. That same man appears in the Yagyū dojo: he is Hyōgonosuke. He is inducted as the new Yagyū head. Meanwhile, Denshichirō Yoshioka gets tired that his requests to challenge Sekishūsai are rejected time and time again, and leaves. On his way out, he finds Musashi, the two rivals restate their commitment for a future rematch. However, after Denshichirō makes a graceless cut on a stem, Musashi notices that his own level is already higher than Denshichirō's. Meeting, fights and encounter Musashi finally crafts a scheme: he sends Jōtarō with a cut stem and a letter, in which he requests to see who made a cut so splendid. The 4 Yagyū senior disciples realize that the cuts in the stem, one by Musashi and another by Sekishūsai, are identical, and grant Musashi a meeting with them. After a peaceful chat, Musashi begings to provoke them into a fight, hoping that after defeating them, Sekishūsai will accept a challenge, but the 4 seniors don't follow his taunts. However, the meeting is interrupted after Jōtarō kills the Yagyū pet dog because it attacked him. The disciples are about to kill Jōtarō, but Musashi claims that, as Jōtarō's master, punishment must fall on him instead. Jōtarō runs away. Musashi briefly fights some low-levels, then the 4 seniors fight him all at once. After some bouts, Musashi brings the fight to a bridge so that attacks only come from one direction, but at one point he falls into the water. The 4 seniors almost succeed in killing him when they use an underwater chokehold, but Musashi frees and escapes to a bamboo forest. He realizes they fight desperately because Sekishūsai must be near. He arrives to Sekishūsai's cottage, where he has a brief but emotional reunion with Otsū, who hides him in the cottage. Musashi finds Sekishūsai and tries to kill him, seeing he is old, sleeping and with just a backscratcher on his hands, but is immobilized by Sekishūsai's enormous ki, which reflects Musashi's own fears. Sekishūsai, half asleep, throws his backscratcher into Musashi's head, making him fall to the ground. Musashi's noises awake him. They have a brief but influential talk about strength, in which Sekishūsai delivers his supreme lesson: Invincible Under The Heavens is just a word. Musashi then leaves before the 4 seniors arrive. Epilogue In the arc's epilogue, Musashi sees that Otsū is waiting for him on a bridge, intending to leave the Yagyū. He watches her rescue Jōtarō, who fell in a trapping pit, and concludes that they both will be better under the care of the Yagyū. He then walks away in solitude, heading to his next opponent. Otsū and Jōtarō, however, determine to travel together to meet Musashi again, knowing they will find him if they look for strong fighters. Otsū is now firmer after training with the Yagyū, and in a tavern fight with some low-levels wounded by Musashi, she stops them. Takuan visits the Yagyū. He, Sekishūsai and Hyōgonosuke talk about the sword, Musashi and Otsū. Sekishūsai is sad for Otsū's goodbye. Hyōgonosuke leaves to continue his training. Takuan renews his wandering. Category:Story Arcs